Falling Fast (Loving the Sound Book 1)

by Kat Obie

  “Nah, man. It was inspired in the end. Although next time just bring her to coach. Work on her game later,” said Lager, speaking for the team.

  “Kay. I know her game needs work. Hell, she even knows it too. I’m pretty sure she would have walked out if I didn’t intercept her. But I knew she would be a good coach and not just in the field of aquatics.”

  “Aquatics?” asked Lager.

  “She runs a pool or pools at one of the universities in town. She coaches swimming and teaches people how to swim. She will keep the pools up and running with lifeguards even if she has to do it herself. I don’t fully understand everything about her job. I just know that, despite being a Flyers fan first, she gets hockey and can coach.”

  Wheels had an opinion on the Flyers. The whole team knew he would love to be back with them if they would pay him the same amount of money as the Sound. He said, “Dude, Flyer fans are no joke. Rough at times, but that’s because they know what their team can do.”

  Then Donnie asked a question as he was starting to finish up getting dressed. “I’ve been meaning to ask, if only to get Diane off my case, although after tonight, I’m curious about it myself: is this a keeper or a semi-serious thing?”

  Scotty didn’t even have to think about it. He wanted Alice in his life. “Keeper.”

  Lager added in his two cents and told the team everything. “So much so that the asshole asked her to move in.”

  “Hey,” Scotty said. “What can I say—it seemed like a good move to me.”

  The announcement that Scotty had asked someone to move in was big news. It was met with mixed reviews. Some of the guys shook their heads in approval but everyone was shocked. Scotty smiled and didn’t care since he was happier than ever.

  Earlier in the day, he’d wondered if they were moving too fast. After tonight, he knew that she was right for him. His forever girl. He just needed her buy in.

  They finished getting changed. Scotty was one of the last ones to leave as per usual. He hoped that Alice would be there waiting and didn’t just drive home. He hadn’t seen any messages from her on his phone. He headed out to the lobby and saw her talking with Lager and nursing a bottle of coke.

  “Hasn’t anyone told you that’s a terrible recovery drink?” asked Scotty with a smile.

  “I know, but I like it. So,” said Alice with a smile. He half expected Alice to stick her tongue out, but she didn’t. She took a defiant swig of her soda.

  Scotty was tempted to pick her up and snuggle with her, but with her hockey bag hanging off her shoulder and Lager, it was better to just stand close. She leaned her head back onto his shoulder and he asked, “What were you two talking about?”

  “Oh, nothing important. Might get some swim lessons for the little man,” said Lager.

  Scotty nodded. It was weird that Lager’s wife wasn’t going to teach him swimming. Alice looked up towards Scott’s face with a bit of a wistful look in her eyes, “Ready to go home and/or get something to eat?”

  “Mmhmmm.”

  Alice turned her gaze back towards Lager and said, “We can touch base about the lessons later. Just email or text me. Brigitta has my contact information.”

  “Sounds good. I will let you lovebirds be. You better talk to Berman or I will about the freak line,” Lager said.

  “I will. Have you known me to not bring something like that up to him?” replied Scotty. Lager headed back towards the Sound’s locker room so he would have easy access to his car.

  Scotty took pride in his captain’s role and wanted to do what was best for the team. That meant making sure he talked with the coaches about the lines on occasion and, if needed, doing his own meetings. Hell, it was why he wanted to bring a coach for the OTA practice, even if it was his girlfriend.

  Alice looked up towards Scotty and asked, “The freak line?”

  “That’s what Lager is calling the line that you came up with for Corey, him, and me. He thinks it was a great way to increase scoring, and I agree.”

  “Makes sense. Of all the lines, that would be the most appropriate one to be called The Freak Line since it’s such a weird concept.”

  “Won’t lie, I wasn’t so sure that line combination would work when you tossed out Dkyst. Although I’m not surprised that you split up the three of us. But why Corey? Also, how did you know about Lager being able to do both sides?”

  “For Corey, that’s obvious. He has great breakout capability that’s not typical in third liners, and the three of you are friends off the ice. That always helps with communication. Half the time you consider Dykstman as an afterthought. So I was trying to figure out how to make that work. It wasn’t until I remembered there were a few games that Lager did on the left wing in the Calder Cup playoffs that I knew it would work. Him succeeding in that spot helped to kill the Phantoms hopes of getting the Cup.”

  “The Phantoms?” Then he remembered—they were the Flyers farm team. She was a fan who enjoyed watching the prospects develop.

  “The Philadelphia Phantoms used to have cheap tickets for college students. Jenna and I would go to games all the time in undergrad.”

  “Don’t tell me you were a puck bunny back in college?” asked Scotty incredulously. He honestly couldn’t see it, but he knew a few girls from school that were pretty wild in college and calmed down as they got older.

  “Have we met?” asked Alice as she squinted her eyes. “I don’t throw myself at every hockey player I see. I strictly went to the games to watch hockey. I never had the confidence to believe that I stood a chance with a professional athlete, even if they were in the AHL. I was a geeky, quiet girl back then who knew sports. I really didn’t believe anyone who said I was pretty back then. So there was no throwing myself at anyone."

  “Seems like you have gotten over that. Cause when I see you, I see a mostly confident, geeky girl who loves sports and is gorgeous to boot,” said Scott as he kissed her on the nose. She tilted her chin upwards to kiss him on the lips. When their lips separated, he said, “I’m pretty lucky to have you all to myself. You really rocked it out there.”

  “Thanks for trusting me to try out some of my crazy ideas and letting me coach. I seriously had no idea that this was what you were planning when you invited me to come out tonight. You could have told me."

  “No problem. But I knew if I told you what I had in mind, you would have bailed.” He smiled as he kissed her one more time. “Hell, I know that you only came onto the ice at all because I stopped you. You have to get over your fear of sucking and show the world the talents.”

  “I’m trying.”

  “That’s all I ask.” Scott looked into her eyes. He tried to get a read on what was going on in her mind. “Besides, I think you are awesome and did a great job today. Let’s go get some dinner before we head home. How about sushi?”

  Alice nodded and said, “That sounds positively divine.”

  12

  Scott

  When they got back to his place, he was ready to kick back with his family. He just hoped that dinner would be the end of Alice worrying about moving in. With the burglary, he had to let her work through the stuff.

  As he entered the house, his phone went off. He knew it had to be his parents since Alice was behind him. He picked up the phone as he greeted the dogs that were waiting by the door. Since he was distracted by his mom, he didn’t shut the door quickly enough and Backup ran out the door. Fortunately, Alice caught Backup as he leapt down the steps.

  “Whoa there. We can’t be running out there with no leash or a parent. You know that,” Alice said softly as she grabbed the little guy.

  Scott was glad she was there to back him up at that moment. Before he had a chance to apologize, his mom complained about how he hadn’t called after the All-Star weekend.

  “I bet it’s in part due to your new girlfriend,” his mom said in jest. Scott felt guilty. He remembered how Denise didn’t like to spend time with his family since she couldn’t speak French and didn’t like being
left out. So he didn’t talk to his family a whole lot when they were dating. He hated how he’d withdrawn from his family.

  “I flew back late last night, and I’ve been busy today trying to get the training schedule back to normal. But I would like to introduce you to Alice and we have some news. Can I call you on FaceTime?”

  “Sure.”

  Scott hung up the phone and looked towards Alice. She was playing with the two dogs by passing the puck side to side with one of his sticks as the dogs tried to catch it. It was so adorable, he decided to film it. He mostly filmed the two dogs trying to snag the puck away, and all that could be seen of Alice was her feet. Once he got a few seconds, he threw it up as an Instagram story, tagging Alice as he did with the phrase, “So this is what happens when I’m not looking.”

  After that was done, he kissed Alice’s nose. “Ready to talk to my parents?”

  Alice leaned his stick against the wall and said, “As ready as I’m going to be.”

  She was nervous, so he hugged her. “You’ll be fine. Just remember my mom only speaks French. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Just trying will be enough and I can help to translate.”

  They moved to the sofa, and she snuggled into his side. She was trying to hide, but he didn’t really give her much room to do so. He dialed his mom’s phone using FaceTime. Almost instantaneously, his mom answered. “What took so long?” This was clearly directed at him. Then she looked towards Alice and smiled. “Is this Alice?”

  “Yes, madam,” said Alice in a super formal tone, but it was in French. Scotty pulled her in close and rubbed her arm.

  His mom beat him to it. “Don’t be so formal. So you speak some French?”

  “A little. I understand it when I hear it, but I get shy speaking in French and then I forget the words.”

  “I’m the same way. It’s why I have the boys translate for me.”

  Scotty nearly dropped the phone. He never knew his mom understood a word of English. He and his dad would always translate for her. He tried to hide his surprise, but he wasn’t doing a good job since his mom immediately said, “Don’t act so surprised, Scotty. I watch all your games and I live in Canada. It’s hard not to know some English.” His mom paused a moment before saying with a wink, “Besides, it’s sometimes useful when people don’t think you understand what they are saying. You see their true selves.”

  “True. I’ve seen that a few times myself,” added Alice, and although she didn’t elaborate, he knew there had to be a story or two there. He hoped he could learn them.

  “It’s nice to actually converse with you. His last girlfriend wouldn’t even try to speak to me if Scotty or his dad wasn’t around.”

  Scott winced at that comment. He hoped things would be better with Alice, and that seemed to be the case thus far. His mom was all smiles and joking around.

  “I’ll always . . .” Alice paused and whispered in Scott’s ear, looking for the word for “try.” He gave it to her. He almost gave her a slight grammar correction too, but she caught herself as she restarted and said, “I’ll always try.”

  Scott was proud of her.

  “Which is all that you need to do. So, Scott, you said you had some news that you wanted to share,” said his mom.

  “Where’s dad? I want to make sure he’s here too,” asked Scott.

  “He’s here.” His mom held the phone so they could see that his dad was sitting next to his mom, much as he and Alice were sitting. His mom was clearly just keeping the phone super close. “So, what’s the news?”

  “As you know, Alice has been staying with me since before the All-Star game due to the burglary. Well, I liked having her here. So I asked her to move in and I got her a puppy.”

  “So, what did she say?” asked his dad, always a bit impatient. He knew that his dad wouldn’t care about a dog.

  “I said yes this morning,” said Alice.

  “That’s wonderful!” said his mom. “We’ll have to meet your family. What do they think?”

  Scotty didn’t want Alice to get grilled by his mom. He said quickly, “It was decided today. They don’t know yet. But we can arrange something where everyone meets up. But it’s been a long day.”

  “Okay, fine. We will leave you be. I know you just want to get off so you can be together. It’s fine. We know what it’s like. Congratulations. We love you. Both of you.”

  “Love you too. Night mom and dad,” replied Scott.

  “Good night, Mr and Mrs Wheiland,” said Alice.

  “Alice, don’t be so formal with us. Night,” said his mom.

  Scott set the phone down. He laid his head on top of Alice’s and kissed her forehead. “That wasn’t so bad, was it?”

  “It wasn’t. Your family seems really nice.”

  Scott felt like keeping the mood light. “You know that’s the most I’ve heard you speak in French. It’s not half-bad, except for one thing. What’s up with your accent?”

  “What do you mean?” asked Alice in an obvious innocence ploy. Scott was tempted to tickle her sides, but instead he kissed her forehead.

  “Your accent. It’s really jacked up.”

  Alice looked at him with mock seriousness. “What do you expect an American who was taught a Parisian accent in school but had to turn to Quebec friends to pass their oral exams to sound like?”

  Scotty smiled. “Touche, but we will need to fix it. Get something that doesn’t sound so jacked up.”

  “You can try,” Alice said with a small laugh. Then she went slightly more pensive. “You really think things were okay with your parents?”

  Scott was smiling. “Yeah, I do.” Scott reached for his phone. He knew that his mom wouldn’t hold back on her opinion.

  She was too polite to say anything on the phone if Alice was in earshot. She would always text her opinions. He realized it might not have been the best idea to post on Insta before calling his parents. He ignored the notifications and looked at the text messages. He saw the message from his mom. He kissed Alice and said, “Would you like to see proof?”

  Alice nodded, and he passed her the phone. She saw the message from his mom that said Alice seemed like a keeper but don’t rush. Alice smiled deeply and melted into Scott as she fully relaxed.

  “That seemed too easy. You know my family won’t be. There will be at least 20 questions. Do you still want to do it with all the road games? I could reschedule the day you meet them if you like.” Alice rambled. Scott kissed her lips to shut her up which was probably good since she was afraid that he would rethink the situation and they would break up.

  “It’ll be fine. Don’t reschedule. If you do, it will cause more issues. I wouldn’t have agreed to it if I thought it was going to be a problem.” Scott pulled her onto his lap and had her look into his eyes. “Besides, who suggested the date your family comes?”

  He did suggest this date when they picked out the various weekend games that he could meet her family a couple weeks ago. Alice closed her eyes. Her uneasiness about her family coming over was starting to subside. Scott didn’t get what the big deal was.

  Alice said, “You. I know you’re right. I shouldn’t be freaking out and I need to relax. Since the break-in, my emotions have been all over the place.”

  “I know, babe. I would do anything to see you feel okay. Until then, we will go through it together. It will be okay. There might be some hope for you after all. You are finally playing around with a puck. It was so utterly adorable to see you use my stick to entertain our dogs. Do you do that often when I’m not looking?”

  Unsurprisingly, Alice rolled her eyes. “How many times do I have to tell you I’m not afraid of the puck when it’s floor hockey. The ice makes the puck move so much faster and I lose control. I don’t like sucking. And yes, I do it sometimes with Chloe.”

  “You don’t suck. Okay, you kinda do, but you just need to practice. You can’t always pass it up or not carry the puck. And you know what? If you improve the stick handling, I’m sure you could get
a hockey coaching job. You were pretty awesome and could do it with a moment’s notice.”

  Alice smiled. “No thanks to you. But what if I don't want to be a hockey coach and stick with my current stuff instead?”

  Scott kissed her on the nose. “As long as you’re happy.”

  Scott was dead tired after the last game. It was a hard fought win against the Blues. They were being stingy with allowing goals in the net. Fortunately, Crestie was just as stingy as rookie net minder, which meant a shootout. It was a long night, and getting back to the hotel was a godsend.

  Collapsing on the bed, he pulled out his iPad so he could check in on Alice and see her thoughts on the game and how her day was going. He missed sleeping and lying beside her at night.

  As soon as Scott saw Alice’s face, he knew that all was not well and most likely it was more than just him being gone. So while he was trying to stifle a yawn, he said, “Hey, babe, what’s up?”

  “Long day,” Alice said. She took a deep breath; it was clear that she was steeling herself. “I got a letter from the prosecutor today. They charged a kid with my burglary. I need to write a victim impact statement.”

  Scott was surprised that she wasn’t happy at the news. Then he realized it brought up all the emotions that she was trying so hard to bury.

  In her lap were both of the dogs and they could comfort her. He should put a positive spin on the situation although all he wanted to do was hug her.

  “At least they caught someone,” supplied Scott.

  “It’s in juvenile court so I know regardless of what happens they will only be sentenced a short time. It just sucks. I’m not ready to write the victim impact statement.”

  Scott couldn’t blame her. It was a lot and he hated that he wasn’t there to help. “When do you need to send back the victim impact statement?”

  “A week.”

  “That’s not so bad. I will be back before the week is up, so I can be there to help you through as you write it. Maybe writing the statement will help you heal.”